Curious children attracted to electrical outlets are at risk of shock and injury resulting from touching live contacts or inserting metal objects into plug holes of electrical outlet receptacles. The prior art includes several types of protectors or guards to prevent the accidental or inadvertent insertion of fingers or metallic objects into the receptacle openings of electrical outlets. One such device is an electrically non-conducting dummy plug which can be inserted into the outlet receptacle when the receptacle is not in use. A short-coming of such a device is that it has no means to attach the dummy plug to the outlet when the dummy plug is not in use. A significant disadvantage of such a device is that when not in use, the dummy plug may become lost, misplaced, or broken.
A safety cover comprising a pair of safety plugs connected by a tether is disclosed by Buckshaw, U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,148 issued May 21, 1991. Buckshaw describes a flexible, linear tether having an aperture therein between the two safety plugs so that the tether can be attached to an electrical outlet by a screw. When a safety plug is not in use it is folded away from the receptacle and over the tether exposing an electrical outlet socket. While the Buckshaw apparatus keeps the safety cover in place when not in use, access to the outlet receptacle is crowded or obstructed by the close proximity of the unused safety plug in combination with the tether.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a safety plug for protecting conventional duplex electrical outlets that is simple in structure, easy to use, and economical to produce.
Another object of the invention is to provide a safety plug which can be removably attached to conventional duplex electrical outlets without altering or modifying the structure of the outlet.
Another object of this invention is to provide a safety plug that can be quickly and easily employed to protect an outlet receptacle, and easily disengaged when access to the electrical outlet receptacle is desired.
A further object of the invention is to provide a duplex safety plug for a duplex electrical outlet that permits the use of either one or both of the outlet receptacles while the safety plug is still attached to the outlet, whether by means of one of the plugs or by means of the tether attached to the center mount.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a safety plug protector that can be quickly and easily placed on a conventional duplex electrical outlet to cover and seal it during painting, and then be easily removed after the painting has been completed.